By James Simons-
Kingston Council has been gifted with a £338,000 award to provide English language courses to vulnerable refugees and migrants in the borough.
The Council was granted the investment from the Government’s Controlling Migration Fund, intended to boost the quality of English among those in the borough who speak other languages- known as Kingston’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Integration programme. The direction of the funding is likely to create some disagreement because there are people born in the UK who speak other languages but who also speak English very well.
There are also many UK born individuals who do not speak any other language, but whose English is grammatically poor and can do with improvement. As things stand, the aim of the funding is believed to aid those who struggle to speak English well, and enable them to integrate better into society. However, there are already residents in the borough who believe their children who do not speak any other language should also benefit from the programme. 41 year old Marlon Godfree told the eye of media.com ” many of the teenagers round here can do with English coaching, I think it is unfair if the government splashes loads of money for only people who can’t speak English well. Ofcourse, we want to see everybody speaking English well, but this does not mean our own born and bred children should be cut off from this funding. We will be asking for a breakdown of exactly how this money will be spent and who will be left out of it”.
Another objection was voiced by 32 year old Sharon Matthews who told the eye of media .com :
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” I think we have to carefully think of what is being planned and said here All those who have difficulty with speaking good English should benefit from such a grant. People are fed up of this government providing money to help foreigners and not the citizens of this country. There are many English born children who need help with raising their standard of English. At the moment, only children from well off families are guaranteed a solid education that ensures they speak good English. There are children from poor backgrounds who are well educated and speak good English, but those are usually children whose parents are very educated. We must not leave children from poor and educated backgrounds behind”.
The funding may indeed target foreign children who speak bad English, but the intention is positive and has at its core the aim of integrating communities and making sure foreign nationals with poor English have their language skills improved. However, further communication with the government and the council will be necessary to pacify those who feel unfairly left out to make sure their is a clear understanding regarding the objective of this grant.
Leader of Kingston Council, Kevin Davis told the eye of media.com that the funding:
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“will make a real difference to the lives of these vulnerable groups of people in the borough. Issues about excluded vulnerable groups will be looked at, integration of communities is the goal and we are always open to healthy discussions about matters relating to residents of the council”.
He added: “We have a strong partnership with local education providers, the voluntary sector and other community groups that will make this programme a real success.
“The grant will go a long way to provide a service that will give these individuals lifelong skills whilst delivering wider integration benefits for the community.”